FROM PAKA TO MAXAOS. 155 
pottery, as ugly, I must say, as they were curious, we 
wandered up into the forest to gather plants for dry- 
ing. The palms are more abundant, larger, and in great- 
er variety than we have seen them hitherto. At dusk 
we returned to the steamer, where we found a crowd 
of little boys and some older members of the village 
population, with snakes, fishes, insects, monkeys, &c. 
The news had spread that the collecting of " bixos ' 
was the object of this visit to their settlement, and all 
were thronging in with their live wares of different kinds. 
Mr. Agassiz was very much pleased with this first harvest. 
He added a considerable number of new species to his 
collection of Amazonian fishes made in Para, already so 
full and rare. We remained at the Breves landing all 
night, and this morning we are steaming along between 
islands, in a channel which bears the name of the river 
Aturia. It gives an idea of the grandeur of the Amazons, 
that many of the channels dividing the islands by which 
its immense breadth is broken are themselves like ample 
rivers, and among the people here are known by distinct 
local names. The banks are flat ; we have seen no cliffs 
as yet, and the beauty of the scenery is wholly in the 
forest. I speak more of the palms than of other trees, 
because they are not to be mistaken, and from their pe- 
culiar port they stand out in bold relief from the mass 
of foliage, often rising above it and sharply defined against 
the sky. There are, however, a host of other trees, the 
names of which are unknown to us as yet, many of which 
I suppose have no place even in botanical nomenclature, 
forming a dense wall of verdure along the banks of the 
river. We have sometimes heard it said that the voyage 
up the Amazons is monotonous ; but to me it seems de- 
